


the words are old but always true

by ThunderstormsandMemories



Category: Les Misérables - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Marvel Avengers Fusion, Asexual Character, Asexual Relationship, F/F, F/M, OT3, background valjean/javert, cosette is captain america, eponine is the winter soldier, it has a happy ending just trust me
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-04
Updated: 2014-07-04
Packaged: 2018-02-07 11:48:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,643
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1897845
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ThunderstormsandMemories/pseuds/ThunderstormsandMemories
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In which Cosette deals with memories, love, and the American media.</p>
            </blockquote>





	the words are old but always true

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by this tumblr post: http://courfeyrac-yourbody.tumblr.com/post/86665731997/ive-seen-a-couple-captain-america-the-winter  
> I know Marius could've been Peggy but I wanted to do post-Cap 2 because I wanted my fluffy OT3 happy ending.

They thought her nothing more than a glorified pin-up girl. They saw her curled hair and her bright lipstick and remembered the videos and posters of her singing and dancing to entertain the troops.

  
They forgot that she grew up starving and abused and almost entirely alone. Almost.

  
They forgot, or wanted to forget, that she was the first and only trial run for the supersoldier serum. Test it on someone no one will miss, that's what they'd said, why they'd picked her. But she had been missed. Not by her mother, who'd disappeared not long after sending her to live with the Thenardiers. And certainly not by the Thenardiers themselves, who barely noticed when their own son ran away. But there was someone who missed her.

  
They forgot that after the months of glamour, the whirlwind tours of every major city in America, she'd gone to Europe. They forgot, or maybe just found it hard to believe once they saw her, that she had seen combat, had rescued the 107th, had killed the Red Skull. They forgot that she was, after all, Captain America.

  
So when they gave her the, “honey, just stay out of the way and let the men deal with this,” routine, she gave them her sweetest smile, tied back her hair, and stole her old uniform, the one they kept in the Smithsonian, the one they thought had been made for the real supersoldier who'd never been created, the one they thought had never actually been used. And then she took down Hydra.

\---

Victory didn't satisfy her the way she thought it would. She'd saved the day, or so what remained of SHIELD liked to say. Not that there was much left of SHIELD anymore, but still. They were celebrating, and she felt more hollow inside than ever. She'd been feeling better, with quite a bit of help and support from Marius. She'd been feeling less alone, the hole in her heart healing. But now that she knew Eponine was alive, had been all along, if you could call existence as a brainwashed, frozen superassassin a life, it was as if everything she had rebuilt was ripped away from her. And there would be no rest for her until she found Eponine and brought her safely home. Wherever that is, she thought, knowing in the back of her mind what she meant: that home was wherever the two of them were together.

  
That was why the cute little one-story house she shared with Marius could never feel like home, as lovely as Marius was, as much as he did everything he could to make her happy. He loved her, and leaving would break his heart. Which is why she hesitated, rehearsing her speech in front of the bathroom mirror. She'd already cried twice, redoing her makeup after each time, and if she delayed any longer Marius would start to worry about her. Or rather, start to worry about her even more than he already did. She was pretty sure he lived in a constant state of concern for her happiness and wellbeing.

  
Her bags were packed, and somehow she forgot that he would notice the missing clothes and weapons and false ID's, so it shouldn't have come as a shock to her when she found him by her car- the car he insisted on buying for her- staring sadly at the pile of luggage. “Marius, I-” Her carefully practiced speech slipped out of her mind. “I'm sorry.”

  
“I know. It's okay.” But before she could tell him not to be gentle with her, not to be so damn understanding, that it really wasn't okay at all, he pulled her into a hug, whispering “I love you” into her hair. “We'll do this together.”

  
“You don't have to... for me... it's dangerous, she's dangerous... you don't have to follow me... you have a life here, a job, a home...” She had just recognized his suitcase thrown in the truck along side hers.

  
“My home is with you. My life is yours. And I'll follow you anywhere as long as you want me. As long as you love me.” He stepped back, his eyes wide, pleading, asking the question he dared not put into words.

  
“I do love you. Of course. Always. You know that.” She took the keys from him and jumped in the drivers' seat. “Well, let's get started.”

\---

She remembered. And she remembered that she had remembered before and had those memories ripped from her mind before she could process what they meant.

  
She remembered the woman on the bridge. Her target. According to the display at the Smithsonian, the woman was Euphrasie “Cosette” Fauchelevaunt, Captain America, her best friend. She almost forgot to look for her own name when she saw that. Best friend. Target was easier to understand.

  
She remembered being young and alive, being reckless and angry and fighting, always fighting. She remembered Cosette, impossibly small and frail and tough. Cosette carefully arranging a bouquet of flowers in a cracked water glass, Cosette curled under Eponine's arm, sobbing into her chest, Cosette's face lighting up as she twirled in a new skirt Eponine has given her for Christmas (bought with stolen money, but Cosette didn't need to know that, or else she would've returned it), Cosette sitting on the balcony, paintbrush in hand, watching the sunrise, Cosette staring down a much larger man in the street outside a bar, her voice trembling but refusing to run. That memory was particularly vivid, screaming at Cosette afterwards for picking fights she had no chance of winning (“You don't need to defend everyone all the time!” “Then who will?”), screaming at Cosette to run, the sound of her fist as it shattered the man's nose, the blood, always the blood. She'd thought she'd left that behind with her parents. She'd thought moving in with Cosette would be a fresh start, thought that because Cosette was so good she would become good herself. But she didn't realize that Cosette's goodness was only sustainable as long as she was around to be... practical, she called it. Realistic. Ruthless.

  
On good days she remembered how she seemed to be the only one who realized how beautiful Cosette was. Everyone else looked at Cosette and saw a fragile kind-hearted orphan, someone to be pitied and given charity that she always refused. Eponine looked at her and saw a survivor, a dreamer, someone who could do something great with her life. Maybe it was only fair. Cosette was the only person who looked at Eponine and saw anything more than a thief, someone dangerous, violent, to be avoided, a bad kid from a bad family. On good days she remembered how she had always known Cosette was special even before she was Captain America and people flocked to the theaters to see her dance and sing about patriotism, before she took her show routine to Europe and became the woman who single-handedly rescued the 107th from Hydra. Rumor had it that she was sleeping with one of the men in the unit, thus providing her with motivation and making sure her story somehow still revolved around men. When she read that particular part of the display, Eponine wasn't sure whether to laugh (when was the last time she had laughed?) or break something, and settled for making a strange choking noise that drew concerned looks from her fellow museum patrons. On good days she remembered how much she loved her.

  
Or maybe those were the bad days, and the good days were when she forgot the desperate ache in her chest, forgot the constant worrying about Cosette's health and the strange selfish disappointment when the serum made Cosette strong, too strong to need her anymore, forgot the guilt for what Cosette had suffered at her parents' hands (and hers, too, if she was being honest), forgot how painful it was to be in love and loved back but not in the same way and never able to say anything and having to keep something so important from the only person who trusted her so completely.  
After she had visited the museum exhibit so many times she could recite each informational plaque in her sleep, she began watching them. Cosette and Marius. Her Cosette, and this boy that Eponine couldn't bring herself to hate. She watched them, and she felt lonelier in the presence of their love than she had in all her years as the Winter Soldier.

\---

It had been four hundred and twenty three days since Eponine had returned to Cosette's life, turned up rather unexpectedly on Marius's doorstep after months of searching had come to nothing, and every single one of them had been a gift that Cosette wasn't sure what she'd done to earn. She'd said as much to Marius once, and he'd told her it was because she was so good and had done more than her share of suffering. He said the universe owed her. The universe must've been feeling very grateful, because Cosette couldn't imagine feeling any happier than she was at that moment, an ordinary moment in their uneventful lives. Uneventful being a relative term.

  
Anyway.

  
Marius was making pancakes, and the kitchen smelled like brown sugar and maple syrup and the bouquet of flowers that she was arranging on the table. Eponine loved them, though she pretended to sneeze loudly and theatrically at every opportunity. At the moment, though, she was fast asleep upstairs. Cosette was content to let her sleep in as late as she wanted if it meant she was finally sleeping peacefully for more than a few hours at a time. In the old days Eponine had been up before the sun hunting for her first cup of coffee, but Cosette didn't mention that. Eponine had to find herself her own way, and Cosette couldn't keep molding her back into the girl she'd known seventy years ago. That was Marius's opinion, at any rate, and Cosette trusted him, especially on this.

  
“Have you seen the newspaper yet?” he said, trying and failing to sound casual. He was a good soldier and a better counselor, but as a spy he would've been a disaster. Then again, so would Cosette. She shook her head. “Don't let Eponine see.”

  
“Don't let Eponine see what?” said Eponine, poking her head into the room.

  
Marius's eyes widened in panic and he tried to hide the paper behind his back, but he should've known that Eponine was too quick for him. She ripped it out of his hands, scanned the headline, and slammed it back down on the table, rattling the plates, and Cosette was finally able to see what was wrong. Really, she should've expected it sooner. There'd been a small outpouring of support when she and Marius announced their engagement, but they were thought to be too besotted with each other to provide any exciting scandals and were forgotten by mainstream gossip columns. And Eponine had become so used to secrecy that no one even noticed when she moved in with them. But their days of being left alone were over.

  
On the front page- “don't they have real news to report on?” Eponine snarled- was a picture of Eponine and Cosette. Someone must've followed them the day before, when Cosette had taken Eponine out for their anniversary, and taken a picture as they sat on the back steps of the Jefferson Memorial, cherry blossoms in their hair, just as Cosette was leaning in for a kiss. The oh-so-eloquent caption read, “CAPTAIN AMERICA GAY?!”

  
“Valjean already called. Before either of you were up,” said Marius quietly. “He said Director Javert's furious. Mostly with the journalists, but a little bit with us. Something about security breaches and public image. I kind of see where they're coming from.” Eponine rolled her eyes. “I mean, they're trying to get SHIELD taken seriously as a clandestine organization, after, you know...” He didn't like to mention Hydra around Eponine, and Cosette couldn't blame him. “It's kind of bad that a photographer was able to get so close without anybody noticing.”

  
Eponine glared at the picture as if she could burn it with her eyes. “Yeah, how did we miss that? How did _I_ miss that?”

  
Cosette smiled at her through her eyelashes. “You were distracted.”

  
“Understandably distracted,” agreed Marius, “but the point still stands. And we're supposed to be professionals, the faces of SHIELD, someone for the people to trust. If Valjean and Javert are going to rebuild SHIELD, they need us to be seen as heroes, not celebrities. Look, they're not even going public with their own relationship because they wanted to avoid the publicity. And now we kind of ruined that.”

  
“It's not fair,” said Cosette. "People wouldn't care so much if it were _you_ they caught kissing Eponine.”

  
Marius sighed and sat with his head in his hands for a moment. “Yes. I know. But we can't do anything about that now. You're going to have to do a press conference.”

  
“I won't know what to say,” said Cosette, nervously picking off her nail polish.

  
Marius reached for hand, their matching engagement rings clinking together. “I'll be there if you want me to. Unless Eponine...?”

  
Eponine shuddered and shook her head. “Too many people, too many questions. I'm sorry, I can't.”

  
“It's fine, whatever you're comfortable with-”

  
“You and I can stay here and shoot a sex tape. That'll really confuse the press.”

  
Marius blushed and choked on his coffee but recovered enough to say, “As you wish, 'Ponine.” He was finding it exceedingly hard to concentrate with Eponine's metal hand slowly sliding down his spine.

  
Cosette coughed delicately. “No foreplay at the breakfast table. We have rules about this.” Marius hastily busied himself with the pancakes, which had begun to smoke, but Eponine just winked at Cosette, smirking.

  
“You should add asexuality to your list of topics to confuse the American people with.”

  
“I really do need to do this, don't I?” she said thoughtfully.

  
“Is disobeying Javert ever a good idea?” said Marius, not looking up from his attempt to salvage their breakfast. “Actually, don't answer that.”

  
“I meant, we don't need to confuse them, we need to educate them. This is a chance for me to really help people. This can be a good thing. Because things like this don't get talked about, and maybe it will make a difference if instead of just words that most people don't understand, they have asexual biromantic Captain America and her two wonderful partners. ” Eponine smiled fondly and patted her hair. “What?”

  
“Just... you. This whole thing. It's so you. Noble and completely ridiculous.”

  
Cosette ignored that. “And speaking of my press conference, what should I tell them about you?”

  
“How great I am, obviously. No, I know what you meant,” she said quickly, recognizing Cosette's I-don't-think-you're-taking-this-seriously-enough frown. “Tell them everything.”

  
“Are you sure?” she said.

  
“You're ready for that?” said Marius, abandoning the pancakes as a lost cost cause and joining them to stand with an arm around each of their shoulders.

  
“Ready as I'll ever be,” said Eponine. “If they're gonna know something, they might as well know the truth.”

  
“Javert will kill me,” said Cosette. “Security and all that.”

  
“I'll protect you,” said Eponine softly, leaning in so that their noses were nearly touching.

  
“What about you?” whispered Cosette, and Eponine could see tears in her eyes. “When people find out what Hydra-”

  
“What I did.”

  
“It wasn't you," she said automatically.

  
“You're sweet.”

  
“But what will happen-”

  
“You'll protect me,” said Eponine, reaching for her hand and Marius's at the same time, so that Cosette didn't know who she was talking to anymore, but it didn't matter. They were together, they were safe, they protected each other. “I trust you. I love you.”

**Author's Note:**

> Title from Heart Full of Love Reprise.  
> This is completely irrelevant but I just want you all to appreciate that I had some quality titles all picked out until I decided I really wanted to make it happy. It could've been that line when Eponine recognizes Cosette: we were children together, "now look what's become of me," it could've been from the first A Heart Full of Love: "never mine to lose" or the reprise "never mine to keep." Think of how heartbreaking any of those would have been.
> 
> Amanda Seyfried!Cosette as Captain America  
> Nikki James!Eponine as the Winter Soldier  
> Arbender Robinson!Marius as the Falcon  
> Norm Lewis!Javert as Fury  
> Ramin Karimloo!Valjean as Coulson


End file.
